Leaving a Cat at Home Alone
Leaving a Cat at Home Alone
by Michael
(London, UK)

Hi, I'd like to hear the views of visitor on leaving cats at home alone. The way I see it, we can leave cats alone at home but the question is for how long.
I have never done it. But I am thinking about visiting my brother in Norfolk and the journey time is a four hour round trip.
I would like to stay overnight; but there, I believe, is the limit. If I travel up there and travel back within, say, a 15 hour time frame, I think that during that time it is alright to leave my cats alone.
They could be kept indoors and plenty of food and water left out. In summer months it would be dry food as wet can go off quite quickly. The litter could be freshly done and in good order.
The real question is can we leave cats home alone for 24 hours or 36 hours and more. I think 24 hours is probably the maximum. As I said, I prefer a long waking hours day (15 - 18 hours) to leave them alone.
It would seem that the limit is really about litter cleaning more that anything else. Litter needs to be cleaned etc. every 24 hours, at a minimum. Sometimes it should be done twice per day (24 hours) in my opinion.
But some good cat caretakers will probably have better ideas. They may have better methods in dealing with a cat alone at home.
It seems that another major factor is whether the cat is an indoor/outdoor cat or a full-time indoor cat. Outdoor cats are obviously more at risk and we need, therefore, to be around to deal with emergencies etc.
Full-time indoor cats are more convenient to cat caretakers, which is one major reason why they are full-time indoor cats. It is not solely to do with the cat's welfare.
Clearly if a trusted neighbor could pop in a check on the cats and renew the food and water plus do the litter, the time for leaving cats alone could be extended considerably.
Anyone got some good ideas on this? Maybe playing cat music or leaving the television on helps or even harp therapy for cats. I don't know.
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